Bratislava & Budapest

I normally devote a blog post to a whole country or to a major city I spent a lot of time in, but in the cases of Bratislava and Budapest, I only visited them briefly, and I neglected to visit the rest of Slovakia and Hungary altogether.  I feel like I got to see the main tourist sites of both cities, but I feel like I could've spent more time in both.  I definitely want to go back and see more of both Slovakia and Hungary.  I will admit, however, that I don't think I need to visit Bratislava again!

Bratislava

In all, I spent only one night and most of two days in Bratislava.  For most European capitals that is not nearly enough, but I think for Bratislava two full days is plenty of time to see all of the city's main tourist sites.  I think there are a couple more things worth seeing off the beaten path, such as going across the river, but I feel like I saw what I wanted to there.

I arrived late in the afternoon after a long train ride from Poland by way of the Czech Republic.  It was a pleasant evening and after finding my hostel I wandered through the old parts of the city and the riverside which was just coming to life.  The old buildings of Bratislava are very well lit up at night and make for nice nighttime sightseeing and photos.

My only night in Bratislava was one of the most memorable and bizarre evenings of my entire trip through Europe.  After a long stroll through the city I headed back to my hostel and hung out with one of the owners, Jakub, who'd only just opened the hostel the day before.  Suddenly, the other hostel owner, Viktor, came rushing in and hurriedly flopped on the couch, out of breath.  He did his best to explain what happened in broken English and it can be summed as: he crashed a wedding, started flirting with a girl who looked older than she was and then got run off by her father because she was actually a teenager.  We had a good laugh at his expense, but were intrigued at the idea of crashing a wedding.

Our intrepid party consisted of a Slovakian-American (hostel owner #1, Jakub), a German friend of Jakub, and two travellers: myself and an Australian girl.  We walked past the wedding reception and it appeared to be in full swing.  Jakub called his friend, the best man, and managed to get himself "and some friends" invited to the wedding reception.  Four people in rough travellers clothes walking in to a wedding reception where everyone else is wearing suits and nice dresses?  Perfect.  Having wedding cake, drinking a couple bottles of wine, and posing for wedding pictures?  Priceless.  Well, until the bride's mother notices you and forces the groom to very politely kick you out.  I never could've predicted that happening when I first arrived in Bratislava.

My second day in Bratislava was not nearly as eventful.  I went on the excellent walking tour the next morning and saw most of the main sights of the very compact capital.  For lunch, I went out with Jakub to have a traditional Slovakian meal.  Bryndzové halušky is small potato dumplings covered in cheese with a bit of bacon on top.  I didn't find it amazing, but I always enjoy trying new foods and sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Bratislava, like most European cities, has a large fortress on the top of a hill which dominates the skyline.  I spent the afternoon of the second day exploring the castle and its environs before making my way back to the hostel.  I said a fond farewell to the gang and made my way to the bus station.  A mere three hours later I would be arriving in a city I'd been looking forward to visiting since I'd left home - Budapest.

Budapest

I arrived in Budapest late in the evening and the bizarreness of my travels through Central Europe continued.  I met a person who, indirectly, would play a large roll in my later travels through Europe and we both got to experience a very interesting walk through a dark and abandoned looking section of Budapest.  Petar, the son of Serbian and English parents, grew up in Liverpool.  When I met him in Budapest he had only just arrived, and didn't have any accommodation booked. He asked to tag along with me to my hostel and I said sure, why not?

Our trip to the hostel after getting off the metro was not particularly pleasant.  We wandered through narrow unlit backstreets, following my trusty map and hoping it wouldn't lead us astray.  At long last we made it to the front door of the hostel.  But, it and all the other doors on the dark street, were unlit and covered in graffiti.  A group of men were loitering around a betting shop just down the way and were giving us overly interested looks.  We felt like we probably shouldn't be there.  From out of the shadows a huge black man with knife scars on his face approached us, very nicely asked us if we were looking for the hostel, and then took us to the door and rang the buzzer.  Whew!

The hostel was quite nice and we almost immediately struck out for the Jewish District, which is the cool night spot that has all the world famous ruin bars and excellent restaurants of Budapest.  We tried out a few places, shared a number of pints and talked history and politics long into the night.  A brief stop for amazing falafel and a short walk past the whistling prostitutes got us back to the hostel and a very good nights sleep.

The next morning Petar was gone - called away by pressing business in Serbia which he had to attend to, but his friend from Liverpool, Mike, was arriving that day to meet up with him.  Instead of Petar, it now appeared he was meeting up with me!  I had no idea when he was arriving, and rather than wait around, I set off to see the city.

I started by going on a very good walking tour which led us through the whole city centre - from the Jewish District on the Pest side up to the top of the hill where the old royal buildings and museums are on the Buda side.  As usually happens, walking tours make for great opportunities to meet people and I met a fellow Canadian, Ranjit, from Vancouver, while walking through the city.  We agreed to meet up later that evening and check out a nice restaurant and a ruin bar or two.

The restaurant we went out to was a bit lacklustre, but the ruin bars?  They are fantastic.  Ranjit had met an English girl in his hostel, Preena, and the three of us shared a few drinks as we checked out bar after bar, each one seemingly cooler than the last.  Sadly, I wasn't directing us that night and I, to this day, don't remember the names of the places we visited, nor do I know how to find the places we visited again, except for one: Szimpla Kert.

A ruin bar is an experience.  Walking in your senses are overloaded.  Haphazard rope netting, rope lights, Christmas lights and furniture hang from the ceiling.  Next, you notice the half-crumbling walls, the sloped and ruined stair cases, and the skylights covered in layers of broken glass.  Finally, to complete the picture, two hundred inebriated bodies are heaving through the narrow old factory floor drinking and trying to shout over the loud music.  The whole scene ends up being stunning and a bit overwhelming.  In a good way.

On my last day in Budapest I finally met up with Petar's friend Mike, and we walked into the centre together on our way to new (and less remote/frightening) hostels.  I also met up with a friend I made while in Krakow, Kayleigh, who'd only just arrived from Bratislava.  We decided to head up to the Szechenyi baths, of which I'd heard nothing but good things from every person I'd met who'd been there.

The Szechenyi baths are a massive complex of baths built on top of several natural springs.  In Roman times baths had been built in this spot, and it was easy to see why.  38C mineral water naturally coming out of the ground?  Fantastic.  The baths are separated into mineral pools and outdoor pools, all of varying temperatures (26C to 38C).  We enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon in the sun, soaking up mineral water and burning our feet in the severely hot sauna.

I had a mission for my last night in Budapest: get a picture of both the Chain Bridge and the Parliament Building while lit up at night.  Unlike the previous night the mission was a resounding success as Kayleigh, Mike and I walked an extremely long way to get the pictures.  It was worth it!  After a brief stop back at Szimpla Kert in the Jewish District I headed off to bed.  The next day I was changing direction.  I'd been heading east since leaving England.  The next morning I turned around and went west.  Austria beckoned.

Poland (part 2)

Torún

I had somehow managed to go nearly two and a half months traveling overland through Europe, by every conceivable form of public transport, and not gotten lost. Until Gdansk.  I had a very simple direct north-south regional train from Gdansk to Torún, but no seat reservation.  Trains in Poland, especially regional trains, are ALWAYS late.  My train to Torún was late and the train heading east?  Showed up the exact minute that mine should have.  I got on it.  An hour later I was getting off in Malbork, cursing myself.  Good things can't last forever!

I did eventually make it to Torún later that evening and got to my hostel without issue.  Little did I know, however, that I was going to be the only person in my hostel!  Torún is a nice city, but its hard to truly enjoy a place when you feel a bit cut off and alone.  Even the girls at reception weren't all that interested in having a chat with me.

The city itself is very nice.  The beautiful main square is filled with nice old buildings, the towers and walls near the river are in very good condition, the birthplace and childhood home of Copernicus makes for an interesting, albeit brief, stop and of course, walking along the famous Vistula river, on which the city is built, made for a pleasant stroll.

While I was in Torún I also tried some very interesting food.  The first was cheap Indian food, for which I had a coupon, making it even cheaper.  Lets just say that cheap Polish Indian food served for a cut rate price tastes very different and not quite like any other Indian food I've ever had.  The other food I tried in Torún was baked pierogies - different from the boiled meat/potato/cheese filled dumplings I'd had my whole life back in Canada.  They taste and look very similar to Cornish pasties.  My advice: avoid Indian food in Poland and the baked pierogies are very good!

Krakow

I left Torún for Krakow, which was to be my last stop in Poland.  I had a very good hostel recommendation from my friend Neil and I had several things I wanted to do in and around the city.  What I didn't expect was to meet so many cool people during my stay there or for Krakow to become the favourite city of my entire journey.

I arrived in Krakow very early in the morning after a painfully long overnight train ride in which my entire wagon was filled with teenagers whose hormones were raging and whose flirting didn't subsist until 2am.  I also shared a cabin with some elderly Poles who decided to have a heated 4-way conversation at 4am.  2 hours of very uncomfortable sleep?  Good way to start a new city!

Thankfully, the hostel recommendation was amazing.  Immediately after arriving there I met my favourite member of the fantastic staff at Greg & Tom's, Jo, and she showed me to the common area where I snuck in a couple of hours of sleep before the hostel, and its restaurant, got busy.  I was able to check in not long after and met two people (of four) who shaped a large part of my time in Krakow: Justine, a girl from Edmonton at the tail end of her two year UK working visa (like mine); and a guy who will henceforth be known as 'The Creepy Guy' (TCG).  A weird guy who only wore Cuban heels and who followed me pretty much everywhere I went for 4 straight nights.

It was also through Justine that I met Sam (3/4), a fellow long term wanderer who'd been in Europe for many months and who'd been going wherever the wind blew him.  I'd eventually meet up with Sam again a month later, but at the time the three of us had a great time partying and hanging out in Krakow.

I spent my first day stumbling along through a pair of very good walking tours.  The old centre has a lot of nice looking buildings and statues, important historical, religious and cultural places and is just a very beautiful place to walk around.  In the afternoon I went on a walking tour to the Jewish District.  Unsurprisingly, given the proximity of the largest death camp from the Second World War, the Jewish population in Krakow is very small and has dwindled over the years.  The district now serves as a cool night spot with pubs and restaurants and as a solemn reminder of the terrible things that happened there.  It was quite nice to see all seven synagogues (finally not just yet another cathedral!), a few places where the movie Schindler's List was filmed and the museum which is now in Schindler's old factory.

My second day was spent recovering from the fantastic nightly pub crawls and in going to one of the places I most wanted to see in Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau.  I went with a guided tour, and I feel like the extra 5 euros I spent was worthwhile.  The tour took us directly to Auschwitz with a video about the camp playing on the way, included a very good and knowledgeable local guide, took us directly to Birkenau from Auschwitz, and then deposited us back in Krakow at the end.

Auschwitz is a solemn place and it may not be for the faint of heart.  Nothing is grisly.  If anything, the whole site is incredibly clean and well maintained.  But, there will be moments when you're walking around and a view, a section of barbedwire fence, a building, one of the multitude of displays, or something else entirely, will hit you with the full force of what the place was and what happened there.  I think everyone should visit Auschwitz, and I think its important that people continue to go there.  I can't fathom how someone can be racist, in any form, after being in a place like that.  I think that alone should make it a mandatory visit for everyone who can get there.

I met Kayleigh (4/4) on my second night in Krakow, but I was so unremarkable she didn't remember me the next day - or maybe, just possibly, she is an awesomely crazy Scottish girl that doesn't always remember what happened the night before.  I do think she was, in some way, responsible for the large cut on my knee when someone tried to haul me up to dance on the bar.  Suffice to say, the night life in Krakow is exciting and dangerous.

My third day in Krakow was spent recovering from yet another pub crawl by heading to a milk bar for pierogies and by visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mines.  I had no idea what to expect or think in going to the mines, and I hadn't planned on going, either, if Justine and Kayleigh hadn't dragged me along.  Boy, was I glad they did.

The Wieliczka Salt Mines have been producing salt and making whoever owned them rich for hundreds of years.  There are reportedly several thousand rooms cut through the rock following the veins of salt, but during the tour we "only" visited about 40 of them.  One of which is a massive cathedral over 100 meters underground carved entirely out of rock salt.  The carvings, reliefs, salt chandeliers and rock salt statues are amazing works of art and I would consider it a must see when visiting Krakow (now that I know about it).

My last day in Krakow was a bit of a sad one.  Early in the morning Sam had left to go up into the Tatra Mountains with his Polish friend and Justine was flying back to England.  We managed to finally get her the sweet pierogies she'd wanted to try since arriving in Krakow, even if we had to brave a massive deluge to eat them.  Thankfully, we're hardy Canadians from the north and a bit of hard rain just meant we had to eat with our feet off the ground as the rain pounded down around us.

My last night in Krakow was going out, as was becoming usual, on a pub crawl hosted by the hostel with Kayleigh and an American girl we'd met at the salt mines, Melissa.  It was an eventful night featuring a party tram, Kayleigh biting me, TCG following me from the tram to the club as I lost both Kayleigh and Melissa, and finally getting back to the hostel to get a short amount of much needed sleep before I got on the train.  It was with some grogginess, and a lot of sadness, that I left Krakow early the next morning on my way back south after a fantastic two weeks spent in Poland.

Conclusion

If you've read this far and you're still not convinced that you should visit Poland, this may not be the blog for you.  Either that, or far more likely, I'm a shit writer.

As I said in the first line of part 1, I love Poland.  Writing two blog posts about the country just served to remind me how much I enjoyed everything I saw, the people I got to meet and the great things I got to do.  I left with an appreciation for the language, which can be extremely difficult to pronounce and even harder to figure out its meaning.  I left with a huge appreciation for all the friendly Poles I met, who I talked to and partied with, and who continually surprised me with their genuine smiles and their sincere generosity.  I also left with the full intention of going back some day in the near future!

Poland (Part 1)

Prepare yourself - I love Poland.  This blog entry could quite possibly end up sounding like my man crush on a country that not nearly enough tourists visit and that more people should.  Or maybe not.  Maybe having fewer tourists in the places I visited, and most of those tourists having the right mindset, made my time there that much better.

I had originally planned on visiting Poland on my return trip from Anatolia to Scandinavia, but on a hazy night in Prague I changed my mind: I was going to go to Warsaw from Breclav (612 km's away) rather than Bratislava (82 km's away).  My reasoning seemed sound at the time.

In all, I stayed in four Polish cities, visited 3-4 others, and I wish I had visited a few more on top of that.  My route was pretty inefficient and roundabout, but I wouldn't change a thing based on how much I enjoyed my time in the country.  Here's hoping this inspires you, dear reader, to also visit Poland.

Warsaw

My first stop after leaving the Czech Republic was not the first big town near the border, Katowice, nor was it the old royal city and best destination city in Poland, Krakow.  No, my first stop saw me skip right past both of them to the centre of the country, Warsaw.  Why you might ask?  I had a bro date.  Neil, who I met in Prague, was heading to Krakow and then Warsaw, and we agreed to meet up in Warsaw after I spent a few more days in the Czech Republic.

Warsaw is a sprawling city and over 95% of it was destroyed during the Second World War.  After the war the Poles rebuilt their capital as faithfully as they could.  Pictures and paintings were used to reconstruct old districts and the building facades, but the buildings themselves were built as cheaply as possible - from rubble, loose stones and concrete.  The whole city feels a bit fake and superficial, but the people?  That's something else entirely.

When you consider Poland's tumultuous history, much of it makes for harsh reading for the people of Poland and their ancestors.  The country has been invaded and partitioned time and time again, and has had more foreign rulers than domestic over much of its history.  The country has repeatedly seen the worst of every European war, and in going to Poland I expected the people to be closed and unfriendly - doubly so in a city which had been flattened like Warsaw.  This is not the case.  Polish people are maybe a bit shy, but they are incredibly friendly and outgoing once you get them talking.  They also sure know how to party.

I spent three nights in Warsaw which is about three nights too many considering what most people told me when they heard I was going there.  And, if all you do there is see the city, one day is probably enough.  But, if you go out of your way to befriend Polish people or if you have a couple of nights out there - the city is brilliant and well worth a bit more time.

The city exudes history and I can't recommend taking the free walking tour enough.  Highlights include seeing the statue of the most famous Swedish King of Poland, Sigismund; a very plain looking Royal Palace; the birth place of Marie Curie; a statue of the curious symbol of Warsaw - a sword & shield wielding mermaid; the house of one of my favourite composers, Chopin; and one of the most famous symbols of Polish resistance, a little boy with a machine gun - all within 5 minutes of each other.  I'd also recommend the Warsaw Uprising museum which covers Poland's resistance as a country, and specifically Warsaw's rebellions, against the Nazi invasion and occupation over the course of World War II.

Gdansk

One of the destinations I most wanted to visit on my trip through Europe was not Gdansk.  In fact, I'd never heard of it before (more on this in a minute).  But, one of the places on my must see list was the largest fortress in Europe and the home of the Teutonic Knights, Malbork Castle.  Malbork is a mere 63km from Gdansk, but doesn't have much in the way of cheap lodgings, so I chose Gdansk as my place to stay.  This proved to be very fortuitous as Gdansk is a great city and I really enjoyed my three nights there.

I had been in Gdansk for about five minutes when two other hostel guests (Luiz from Brazil and Flo from Switzerland) invited me to go out with them and a local musician and his girlfriend who they'd met the night before  (Wojtek and Katja).  I, of course, said yes.  In fact, I spent much of my time in Gdansk with Luiz and saw Wojtek every time we went out.

The first night we went out to karaoke, which thankfully Luiz didn't tell me about ahead of the fact, or I might not have gone.  As it turned out, I'm glad I went.  There's nothing quite like watching young Polish men belt out off key Polish rap while severely inebriated.  There's also nothing quite like hearing Wojtek, suddenly and unexpectedly, belting out pitch perfect Ave Maria, in perfect Italian, causing the entire open air bar to fall silent during his performance and to break into raucous applause immediately after it.

My second day was spent being a tourist: doing the free walking tour; climbing the cathedral tower; walking along the canals; and most importantly - going to a milk bar for the first time.  It is a long standing tradition to have cheap cafeterias in Poland dating back to the turn of the twentieth century.  Today they are subsidized by the government to keep that aspect of Polish culture alive.  By the end of my time in Gdansk I was hooked on the cheap and delicious meals, even if I had to wait in line for almost 20 minutes.

My third day saw me achieve one of the goals of my trip through Europe - I took the hour long train ride to Malbork and visited the beautiful red brick castle there.  As a place I wanted to visit beforehand I knew a bit about the history of the castle and the area, but my visit there really opened my eyes.  More heads of state had visited this little out of the way town than I would have imagined, from the Polish kings who used it as a residence to Napoleon and Hitler.

I also learned that Gdansk had at one time been the seat of the Teutonic order until they finished the castle at Malbork, and that the coast of Poland and Lithuania had the largest raw amber supply on the planet.  Some of the amber jewelry made there over the years is stunningly beautiful.  It only added to my appreciation for an area I, criminally, knew so little about.  I also realized I'd heard quite a bit about Gdansk before, when it was the capital of West Prussia, and was known as Danzig.  Who knew?

My only regret about my time in Gdansk is that I never went to Hel.  There is a small spit of land which stretches into the Baltic directly north of Gdansk, which also marks Poland's northernmost point, known as Hel.  It is the place to go for fresh fish and beautiful old cobbled piers.  While disappointed to not go to Hel, I did manage to make it to the nearby town of Sopot.

Sopot is a beach town and a student town all wrapped up in one.  I was there the night after the final day of exams and the night life was spectacular.  The entire main square was full of partying students at 1am when we got there and every club was filled to capacity right until 6am.  It's quite a surreal experience to have a delicious zapiekanka at the end of the pier while watching the sun come up and trying to remember you're on the north coast of Poland.

It was with some sadness I said goodbye to Luiz and Gdansk and headed back to the south.  I had hoped to catch up with a university friend of my sister's in Posnan, but he proved unresponsive to Facebook messages and emails.  Instead, I turned towards the UNESCO Heritage city of Torún on my southward route back towards Krakow - what would turn out to be the favourite city of my entire journey so far.